Flight Centre Australia - Flight Centre Paddington Reviews 1

I booked a Pacific Hopper Cruise for P&O leaving from Brisbane on May 9th returning May 16th last year in July 2024. At the time of booking I was told the cruise was accessible and I was aware P&O was going over to Carnival. From the time I booked the cruise up till I left for it I never received a call from my travel agent Barbara and when I called never got to speak to her. It always was another agent sending emails or answering calls on her behalf. In fact Barbara transferred to another Flight Centre and no one informed me. I only found out because my Mother went into Flight Centre. No one would give me updates or payment links. I had to chase it up and I was told I’d get emails that I would never receive. I would have to keep calling or going into Flight Centre. Took me over 2 months to get Travel Insurance sorted and paid for but when they finally did it they only gave me a few hours deadline to pay. I was getting warnings off P&O to make final payment and I’d chase up Flight Centre for this and it took several phone calls. Now on to the accessibility issues. I was assured by Flight Centre, P&O and Carnival that it would be fully accessible which it was not and in fact I was hurt several times and treated poorly by several Carnival Staff. I made a complaint to Carnival Guest Services. I was told something would be done and it was not. When I got back home I immediately rang Flight Centre to tell them of the experience. This is the first time I had to write this. Flight Centre and Carnival were fully aware that I have Cerebral Palsy and I’m in a mobility scooter mostly. I was in a ‘wheelchair accessible room” which was not. The bed was on wheels and I fell out several times. The shower was not accessible. The shower chair was a tiny stool that was screwed into wall and no leg support. The chair would not even hold my carer/ friend which is 151cm tall. I was informed all venues and food places have a wheelchair spot which they did not. 9 out of 10 times I had to leave my mobility scooter elsewhere and had to walk to my table and nearly fell a few times. Other passengers helped and staff would get annoyed. No spa or pool was accessible. I couldn’t even participate in themed nights because they weren’t accessible. Now on to the Islands. I was told I could get off in Noumea and Vanuatu no issue. Which in fact was not true. Noumea they had this steep ramp that staff tried to push me while in mobility scooter off. I kept telling I need to get off before pushing. They refused to listen. When I got off they had Wheelchair accessible taxi. The driver was rude and made me climb into taxi and I fell smashing my leg and foot into taxi floor. Lifou I was told I could take my mobility scooter off because it folded down by guest services. I was then not allowed to. There was no chairs in the waiting line and other guests got angry at me when I had to queue jump the line in Lifou to get back on the boat. Vanuatu was the same as Noumea. I spent less than an hour in all 3 locations due to not being accessible, rude staff and injury. There was limited accessible events on the cruise and some of them got cancelled either due to weather or other events running longer. I couldn’t participate in games due to it not being accessible. My friend/ carer and I spent over $3000 in total for a trip I would of never gone on if I knew it was so poorly in accessible and not disabled friendly. I was lied to by three different companies. Them all telling me there would be stuff I would be able to do, and how I’ll be able to access it and how I’d be able to get to the restaurants which was not the case. I was told by Carnival that something would be done about this and the same by Flight Centre but nothings happened. Between the poor Customer Service by Flight Centre and the lies and and not disabled friendly, I felt like I was just wandering human for seven days not able to do anything.